Pain and Anger

It probably isn't good for anyone to be angry all the time. It can be tough on one's vital organs - - the combination of anger and stupidity potentially lethal. Yet the proponents of perversity, despite a florid appearance and flaming rhetoric, appear unimpaired by their perpetual angst. It is those of us on the receiving end of their mindless rants who are most at risk and who must learn to endure the assault on our sensibilities as calmly as possible.

The opposition is eager to hang the recession on Obama's shoulders. They criticize his recovery plan and voted against it yet went back to their districts to extol the benefits constituents would realize from its projects. It is perhaps assumed by politicians,

critics and pundits alike that they will be forever blessed with an audience of total idiots, and forgetful idiots at that. Whether it is Republicans intent on scrubbing the Bush legacy or the chorus of right-wing media creatures, there is no letup in the rewriting of history and the constant babble of criticism for any new idea broached by the administration.

Predictions about the future and the reappearance of thoroughly discredited figures from the past contribute to the diminished state of today's political analysis. Right-wing pundits claim that the surge won the war for us in Iraq. Follow-up question please; if that is true, why are we still there in large numbers and at great expense? But even some respected news analysts have adopted a wait-and-see attitude about how the Iraq adventure will be judged in the future. Still, Iraq will never have been the right thing to do no matter how things turn out years from now, unless invading other countries because we don't like their leaders or want to soak up their oil is reason enough.

Adding to the national dissonance Alan Keyes has resurfaced. Transported to Illinois by Republicans to run against Obama for the Senate he was generally considered part of the lunatic fringe. But there he is, wild-eyed as ever, questioning Obama's birthright and calling him a communist. Okay, he manufactured another five minutes of fame for himself; henceforth he should be ignored.

Other things are not so easily ignored, nor should they be. If the New York Post thinks one of those "if-anyone-was-offended" apologies will do they are wrong. A Post cartoon depicting a chimp shot dead by two white cops with the caption: "we'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill" is not funny, not satiric and not "just a cartoon" as the Post suggests. It is a deplorable example of the lowest journalistic denominator - - an insult to people of color, the president and every decent person in the country. It shouldn't be only African Americans protesting in front of the Post's offices.

Have we lost all sense of connection to one another? Has "me first" just become "not you" and humor turned into an exercise in ugly? Now, as the country struggles to cope with its terrifying economic decline, many continue to avert their eyes from the suffering of others and withhold their support from a new president - - some to further their own political ambitions, some because they are blinded by ideological parameters that keep them from accepting change that contradicts long-held convictions.

People who have been financially responsible may resent the use of tax dollars to help those who haven't ‘kept-up'. But most foreclosed families didn't buy houses to flip; they bought homes to live in, and were often undone by circumstances beyond their control. Individual foreclosures are so great in number they have devalued entire neighborhoods. Hedge-fund operators, speculators and lending institutions that helped design fraudulent mortgage derivatives share much of the blame for the collapse of the housing market.

Unfortunately, commentary on the economic crisis is often as clear as what one hears when a radio is stuck between signals. Political motivation has a tendency to distort whatever attempts are otherwise being made to clarify the national condition. The minute a politician says things like "let's be clear" as Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal repeatedly did in a recent interview, what's clear is that you're going to get someone's political agenda.

It's hard to say what will finally get people to stop turning on each other the way survivors in an over-loaded lifeboat often do. For Republicans so far it's been all about obstruction, distraction and looking forward to 2010 and beyond in hopes of reviving their political fortunes. The rest of us can only hope that some sense of partnership takes shape because the country really needs that to happen if it is to prosper once again.